Visual Climb Over Airport (VCOA) | IFR Departures

Have you ever done a Visual Climb Over Airport (VCOA) when departing IFR. This can be an option if an airport has a departure with a minimum climb gradient you feel like you won't be able to maintain, and the weather conditions allow for a climb in VMC up to a certain altitude.
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[@AirSafetyInstitute]

Great video, Dan! Thanks for explaining an often misunderstood procedure.

[@flightinsight9111]

Thanks! Knew you guys would appreciate this one.

[@jjchello]

What a great video! The holy trinity of IFR procedures that require an Instrument Rating to utilize legally, yet are based in visual requirements. The Visual Approach, the Contact Approach, and the VCOA.

[@sethjackson709]

Congrats on 100k, love the vids

[@brunogt1982]

Awesome 👏🏼

[@naknaksdadn572]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@thebadgerpilot]

I’d probably call this the departure equivalent of a contact approach. Can’t see myself doing it unless in the most perfect of situations.

[@Kevlux86]

As you’re doing the procedure: “Cirrus on 10 mi straight in, everyone else: outta my way!”

[@mrjoehimself]

Very well done, bravo sir, and thank you!

[@WG-0]

amazing content as always

[@camiloarabia9303]

Hi Dan, question. do you need a clearance for a VCOA? I thought that airport was uncontrolled, how come you got a clearance to do that departure? was it from Boston Center in that case?
and are VCOA only for non tower airports?

[@GunAddictAllDay]

Some ODPs, which are established solely for obstacle avoidance, require a climb in visual conditions to cross the airport, a fix, or a NAVAID in a specified direction, at or above a specified altitude. These procedures are called Visual Climb Over Airport (VCOA).
To ensure safe and efficient operations, the pilot must verbally request approval from ATC to fly the VCOA when requesting their IFR clearance.

[@AM.Boxing]

Don't be stingy guys, Comment and Subscribe for this amazing content. They are free.

[@jasonchipkin]

LOVE this tip at 6:35 using the ring to identify distance limit from airport.

[@2Greenlid]

Fantastic description and example on this topic, as usual!!

[@jakew9887]

Great presentation. Thanks

[@raccoonair]

Great topic; thanks for sharing.

[@jasonchipkin]

Do you have any tips for easily setting MSFS weather to reflect minimums? The wx layers menu is a bit clunky. I like to set weather at mins and practice approaches. Rain and TS preferred...maybe snow too. You had the ceilings perfectly set on this VCOA example. A video on setting that up might be useful if you have time.😄

[@flightinsight9111]

The stock game has gotten a lot better about this. On this video, I simply set the lowest cloud layer to 3600, make the scatter almost 100% and set just a tiny bit of precip to bring the visibility down. If you haven't tried it since the latest update give it another go. We'll do a longer video on our sim tricks soon!

[@StepAttitude]

​@@flightinsight9111 Looking forward to those sim tricks. Taking the FI IFR ground school and want to set up a sim for IFR practice.